Lovers on the run pose as brother and sister to find work on a farm, only to have the ailing farmer fall in love with the young woman—Brooke Adams in a role that would beguile audiences as well.
Terrence Malick’s second film is set in the Texas Panhandle in 1916, with a plot out of the operas and stage melodramas of that era: lovers on the run pose as brother and sister to find work on a farm, only to have the ailing farmer fall in love with the young woman—Brooke Adams in a role that would beguile audiences as well. She and fellow unknowns Richard Gere and Sam Shepard portray their descent from Eden with penetrating looks and laconic dialogue, while a child’s disarming commentary—improvised by Linda Manz—provides a poetic chorus and distanced point-of-view. With World War I just over the horizon, the loss of innocence detailed by the screenplay parallels the pristine landscapes beginning to be despoiled by early modern technology. Cinematographers Nestor Almendros and Haskell Wexler shot almost exclusively with natural light. Their ravishing panoramas and the restrained power of Malick’s performers bring his imagination to lucid life.
$15 Special Event Tickets / Harvard students free
Phone: 617-496-3211
Email: bgravely@fas.harvard.edu
2022/11/20 - 2022/11/20
Harvard Film Archive
Harvard Film Archive Cinematheque, Cambridge, MA 02138
Although parking in Cambridge is difficult (most of the surrounding streets have restricted parking for Cambridge residents only), metered parking on Broadway and Harvard Streets, as well as the rest of Harvard Square, is free after 8pm. Film-goers are encouraged to use public transportation, particularly the MBTA Red Line.